Sales Coaching Makes Sales for B2B Salespeople
Published by admin on October 11, 2010Ever thought about getting yourself some sales coaching?
How are your sales efforts going in the current economy? Finding it hard ?
For many sales professionals, sales is not easy or fun. It’s hard work that doesn’t yield very good results. So it’s easy to avoid selling completely and just end up an order taker.
I was in B2B sales for 23 years, made a lot of sales and coached a number of sales people. I’m sure I could have learned my craft faster and made more sales sooner, if I knew how.
It doesn’t matter what industry you sell into, one thing is certain – you need to be consistently making sales to survive and thrive.
How are you improving your sales performance ?
Let me ask you something —
If I asked you to hit a fastball going over the plate at 90mph, could you do it ?
If you red a book about how to do it, could you do it?
If you got a couple of days training, could you do it?
What about if you had the services of a hitting coach who worked with you one on one, examining what you were doing wrong, suggesting adjustments and monitoring your practice and progress, could you do it then ?
Now what if the pitcher started throwing you curve balls, could you hit them ? If you had more coaching you could, couldn’t you ?
The training you get as sales people is the information, but a sales coach will help you execute your game plan and use sales skills in the real world.
The faster and more completely you master the skill of selling the faster you’ll see the results in your sales figures, earn more money and earn the respect of your peers and sales manager.
I’ve been there and walked that path and believe me the final results are worth the journey. And it’s preferable to reach your sales potential sooner rather than later.
You may be thinking that you get all the sales information you can possibly use right now from sales books and sales articles.
In fact, information and knowledge is helpful only if you can translate it into action. Coaching translates your knowledge, ideas, goals, and intentions into reality.
You might even be thinking, “I can coach myself for free or talk to my peers or sales manager.”
Yes, you can and should talk to these people, and you will not get the same results you get from working with a professional sales coach because your managers, peers, and friends will all have their own agenda, not be professionally trained in coaching skills, will be biased, and will not provide the same accountability or partnership that you receive from an external coach. Not only that but modern day sales managers rarely have the time to coach their sales people.
Your company may say, “We do not need on-going sales coaching, we have a sales training program”
Well it’s a fact that most sales training has a very short-term effect on performance and less than 15% of the information is retained and implemented. Sales Coaching provides clearly defined goals, on-going support and accountability, changes in behavior and attitude, implementation of new skills, improved productivity, and a customized approach. Huthwaite, the company that studied selling big ticket items and developed the “SPIN Selling Model” discovered in their extensive research that 87% of all sales training is lost within 90 days.
What’s your experience? Have you ever returned from a sales course all fired up and ready for action only to have it disappear quite quickly after your return to work ? Did your company provide you with the reinforcement and support to use the new skills you had acquired ?
The fact is professionals have coaches and amateurs do not. Coaching helps the best get better, the good to become great, and the struggling to breakthrough because coaching provides the essential link between training and sales performance.
Sales Coaching will give you the results you want to see.
And here is an interesting article about how to select a sales coach.
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Need Sales Coaching? Top 10 Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring … – Are You Looking To Hire A Sales Coach To Improve Your Career, Leadership, Life, Business and Sales Results? Learn What To Look For When Hiring A Sales Coach.
